Hong Kong has a wealth of great seafood, but Sai Kung is really special due to its atmosphere and selection.

Chuen Kee is the first (or last, depending from which direction you are coming) of a number of seafood restaurants at the Sai Kung promenade. It's the first one I ever went to and so far I had no urge to try another one whenever I came back.

The selection of seafood is simply amazing: a broad variety of fish, crustaceans and mollusks. And everything is super-fresh i.e. still alive when you enter the restaurant, even the cuttlefish (which I haven’t seen anywhere else). Especially the selection of crustaceans is amazing – from simple shrimps to various Mantis Shrimp lobsters, king crab and giant southern crabs.

The type of preparation is mostly Hong Kong standard but he quality of the seafood itself and the quality of the preparation are top notch. Scallops steamed with garlic and thin rice vermicelli in the shell - qute large scallop with the right dose of galic. Razor clams cooked in a spicy black bean sauce, great sauce, clams with great texture. One of my favorites (and a dish which is less standard) is the cuttlefish sashimi - thin slices of raw cuttlefish on ice with soy sauce and wasabi.

Also the non-seafood items (vegetables, fried rice, beef chow fun noodles) are very good. The beef chow fun noodles is a bit on the dark side, but otherwise verty good, fried rice with egg white very light.

The restaurant itself is a simple place with a big outdoor seating area, plastic chairs and tables, but a nice view over the bay. The service is fast and efficient. Be aware that the place is quite dog friendly, during my last visit (at lunch time) there where dogs sitting at about 1/3 of all tables.

Prices consist of the prices of the seafood plus a fee for the preparation. So if you go for the cheaper pieces (e.g. shrimps, pomfret, …) you can have a fantastic meal for less than HKD 300 per person, if you want king crab and elephant-trunk clam you will spend north of 1000 per person. But prices are generally lower than in central HK

Bread & beast is a small and hip sandwich joint at the end of a small alley with an interesting mix of traditional retail shops and new gastronomic outlets.

The restaurant is open and has only a long table with some bar chairs to sit. Nice design, but not a place to stay for longer.

The menu is quite short: 4 sandwiches plus a few side orders. I went for combo of a “kentucky san” with a side order of lotus root chips for HKD 100. Sandwiches are made to order and mine came within not much more than 5 minutes.

The kentucky san is basically a chicken katsu curry on a bun. A large, thick, hot and very juicy Japanese style breaded chicken filet, curry mayonnaise and some finely shredded cabbage on a ciabatta-style bread. Nicely served on a wood-board (as hip burger places do it these days). The chicken was delicious, tender and juicy and worked very well with the mayo, the cabbage added a bit of texture, but not much taste. Overall a very satisfying sandwich experience.

The word chips is a bit confusing as it means differing things in American and British English, the lotus root chips are “American chips”– thin and cold (i.e. crisps in British English). They look nicer than regular potato chips, but taste basically the same. They are covered with a bit of “fu yue mayo”, no idea what that is, but it didn't add much flavor. Would probably try a different side dish next time.

Overall a good option for a quick lunch in wan chai, but a pit pricey for a sandwich.

Recently opened restaurant. I like the style – simple and casual while light and spacious.

You have to order at the counter and get the food delivered to your table. Although there were only 4-5 people ahead of us we had to wait quite a bit – seems the staff still needs a bit of training with the ordering process.

The choice of food is quite limited: 2 pasta dishes, a hamburger, club sandwich, cooked breakfast, a Japanese black curry with a hamburger and maybe one or two more things. Seems a bit random to me.

So I went for the mushroom pasta (HDK 62), which arrived after a relatively short waiting time. Portion size was ok, as was the texture of the pasta. Unfortunately the taste was far from impressive – basically plain Pasta with pieces of mushroom, but no real sauce. The dish was desperately crying for some parmesan cheese, but unfortunately they only offer the parmesan powder in a shaker, which makes the dish worth.

So nice place, but unless they work on their staff training and menu I am unlikely to return.

this otherwise unremarkable restaurant is famous for its claypot rice, so we visit the place on a cold winter day for some comfort food.

We had to wait for about 20 minutes in the cold (I've been told that the waiting time can be a lot longer), at least we could already place our order.

The restaurant is serving classic versions as well as some unusual ones. We went for the classic BBQ and sausage, a shrimp with noodle and a rib with pumpkin.

As we had already ordered the first pot arrived quickly after we got our table. The BBQ pot was almost perfect - nice rice with a crust and a generous portion of sausage and ham. Next was the shrimp version with an absolutely perfect layer of crispy rice at the bottom and a nice serving of shrimps; the combination of noodles with rice worked very well. Finally the rib and pumpkin pot with some small but tasty pieces of rib and pumpkin, the rice was similarly good as in the previous two.

Staff was remarkably friendly and helpful in the explaining the how and when to eat.

unfortunately the clay pots are only available for dinner

This is literally a pizza bar as you sit on a bar around the open kitchen (there are a couple tables upstairs).

The menu mainly features pizza, pasta and salat. We tried the pizza with ham and mushrooms and the warm vegetable salat.

The warm vegetable salat was basically an ordinary green salat with a few pieces of warm pumpkin and onion. The dressing was mainly oil and water (I guess the salat hasn't been dried properly after washing). Not a recommendable dish.

Fortunately the pizza was better. Quite small with 11 inches and made right in front of us.
The dough was good, making a nice, soft crust. Cheese and ham where of good quality and generous. Mushrooms where unfortunately from a can. Overall still a good Italian style pizza.

The place has a very bistro-like look with some Italian deco elements. Service is fest and friendly.

Prices are quite high given location, portion size and quality (most pizzas are 160 HKD plus 10%)

Morikawa Bento is a small shop, hidden in one of the back rows of admiralty center. They have around 20 different bento boxes, but when I came at 1 pm the choice was already limited to about 5 sets, so I went for ginger pork for 58 HKD.

The presentation of the box is not particularly pretty (given the Japanese obsession with food presentation) – come in a black plastic box with a transparent lid. 

My box contained of a small appetizer of some sort of shellfish, a paper cup with a bag of what seems to be instant miso soup, the ginger pork, slightly seasoned rice, some pickles and a small side salad. Appetizer, rice and pork where still somewhat warm.

The “miso soup” was mainly salty, quite similar to the one you get at Yoshinoya. The appetizer was good – well seasoned and with a nice portion of the shellfish (I guess some sea snail). Pork was ok in taste, but could have had more ginger. I didn’t like that there were some bone pieces in the pork (like in a strip of bacon), which made it a bit difficult to eat. Rice was ok, the pickles were standard supermarket quality. Salad was quite basic – a few leaves, cherry tomato and a bit of corn and the dressing very acidy.

Given the long queues at almost every restaurant at lunch time in this area I would see this overall as an ok alternative for a quick lunch and decent value for money, might come back at an earlier time to have a bit more selection.

Went for lunch while in happy valley.

This a small restaurant – probably 10 small tables, interior is quite aged, place could use a make-over. But as long as the food is good … so let’s see.

There are 10 lunch offers between 84 and 111 HKD (plus 10% service). I went for the Beef Inaniwa udon for 99 HKD.


The seasonal appetizer was a very small bowl of Wakame Seaweem salad, which tasted like the stuff you can buy ready made in the supermarket. Not a very impressive start of the meal.

Next came three pieces of California roll. These were obviously fresh made and nicely arranged. The rice was a bit loose, making the roll a bit difficult to eat as it was immediately falling apart, but the taste was quite good and it came with a good portion of fish roe (and a bit too much mayo for my taste).

Finally the beef udon. I have to admit that I wasn’t aware that Inaniwa udon are quite different from regular udon – they are flat and quite thin, more like linguine. What I got was a large bowl with a clear soup, the mentioned Inaniwa udon, a relatively small amount of very thin cut, very lean beef plus a bit of seaweed and scallions. Taste of the soup was very good, but could have been stronger for my taste. The noodles where good, but could have been a bit harder (honestly I would prefer regular udon). Beef was also good, but could have been a bit more. But a nice bowl of noodles overall.


So overall: Quite good value for 109 HKD (including service), wouldn’t drive to Happy Valley to go there, but worth a try if in the area.

This was the last part in my quest to try the three Michelin listed (not rated, just listed) dumpling restaurants in Hong Kong (the other two are nearby Dumpling Yuan and Ah Chun Shangdong Dumpling in Price Edward (which in my view is the best of the three)).

The specialty of this simple restaurant are Beijing style dumplings. So we tried “Pork and Chinese Cabbage Dumplings” – 10 pieces for 48 HKD. And we got 10 nice, decently sized, good tasting and obviously homemade dumplings. Nothing to complain about, dumplings as they are supposed to be.

In addition we ordered Gou Bu Li – 4 pieces for 32 HKD, which is a kind of stuffed baozi. As I never had the “original” ones from Tianjin I don't have a reference point, these where relatively flat and had a minced meat filling. Given that it is impossible to get decent baozi in Hong Kong I would say these where ok, but definitely not as good as any street stall in Beijing or Shanghai as casing and filling where quite dry.

Hot and sour soup (little bowl for 20 HKD) was neither very hot nor very sour, so there are definitely better versions available in HK.
So overall: good dumplings (I would say it's a draw with Dumpling Yuan), not very excited about the other dishes. Would come back anytime for a quick snack, but probably stick to the dumplings.

Service was ok, dishes came very fast.
Prices are listed above, as you would expect from a place like this it provides some very reasonably priced food.

Hidden behind this inconspicuous door without any further signs but the name is a lillte Japanese restaurant.

The place consists of only one small room with five tables and an open kitchen. There is no hand-out menu, just a chalkboard on the wall listing all dishes - in Chinese only. After some discussion we orderd rib, vegetable, squid, fried noodles and the namesake okonomiyaki.

The squid came first - a big red tube, cut into rings, but still in shape - taste and texture where great. 
Rib was next - four pieces of good quality meat, grilled to the point and with a bit of a yakirori-like sauce.
The okonomiyaki was clearly the highlight of the evening and took ages to prepare (luckily every table ordered it so a whole batch was prepared). It's kind of a sandwich with a pancake at the bottom and a fried egg on the top, in between shredded cabbage and minced meat, topped with various sauces and bonito-flakes. Sounds messy, looks messy, messy to eat, tastes great.
Veggies were so-so, mostly cabbage, some tomatoes and (for my taste) undercooked onions.
Fried noodles were a good final dish - quite thin, yellow noodles (a bit like ramen) only lightly fried with some chicken and vegetables and a quite sweet seasoning, textures were really nice.

The chef is running the whole thing as a one man show - so he is taking the orders, serving drinks and cooking, so waiting times can be long if orders pile up, we stayed in total almost 2 hours eating our 5 dishes - so not an option for a quick snack, but a nice way to spend and evening.

The restaurant is a bit difficult to find – it’s located on the 4th floor of an office building with a relatively narrow entrance. However once you come inside the restaurant is very nice – modern, but unmistakably Indian and more “classy” than your average curry joint.
The menu is very extensive so we had some difficulties choosing, finally we decided on:

Murgh Tikka Peshawar (132 HKD)
Large chucks of boneless chicken, marinated and grilled. The description was something about in cream sauce, so I expected a dish similar to chicken tikka masala, which is isn’t – more like chicken tikka. However the taste of the chicken was very good and it came with a small serving of a minty dip. Unfortunately the chicken wasn't 100% cooked, not raw, but some slightly pink bits. Overall good, but probably would try something different next time.

Palak Paneer (98 HKD)
I had this dish in many places, this was definitely a good version. Lots of paneer, good texture. Relatively mild flavor, not only of Spinach, but also some herbs. Nice texture of the sauce. Overall a very good dish.

Dal Bombay (88 HKD)
A very dark dal, made from almost black beens or lentils (not sure) in a sauce. Again relatively mild, but still enough flavors. This one has a lot of very “dark”, earthy spices. Texture was a bit a liquid for my taste. Overall nice, would eat it again, but given the extensive menu not the next time.

Nan (26 HKD) and Roti (24 HDK)
Very good tandoori nan in structure, texture and flavor, the Roti was a bit chewy – would only order nan next time.

Service is ok, but a bit patchy – sometimes a bit slow, sometimes a bit fast.
Prices are (as you can see above) quite high for an Indian restaurant (in addition they charge 10% service fee), but given the quality and the ambience ok.